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UAS
&ROBOTICS
BY MARK POMERLEAU
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus ex-
pressed frustration recently over
the delays with the Navy's car-
rier-based unmanned aircra program,
saying the debate over how the aircra
will be used is hindering its development.
e Unmanned Carrier-Launched Air-
borne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS)
program, on which the Navy plans to
spend $3 billion by 2020, is being held up
by a debate with Congress over whether
its role would be primarily intelligence,
intelligence, surveillance and reconnais-
sance (ISR) with limited strike capabili-
ties, or primarily strike with limited ISR,
according to a recent Government Ac-
countability O ce report.
Some in Congress, such as Senate
Armed Services Chairman John McCain
(R-Ariz.), want to emphasize strike, while
the Navy has leaned toward ISR, with Ma-
bus saying UCLASS is part of a more in-
cremental approach toward autonomous
systems with deep strike capability.
Meanwhile, UCLASS' development
languishes.
"We've had [a request for proposal]...
ready to go for a year and a half/two years
now, and it's been held up because of a
look at overall ISR systems," Mabus said
at an event at the American Enterprise
Institute. "I don't know if the Navy sees
UCLASS as ISR ... at's certainly one
role, but it's got a lot more roles ... One of
the reasons we'd like to go ahead and get
the RFP out, is that we'd like to nd out
what's available out there in industry."
Mabus said UCLASS would have strike
capabilities but operate in less contested
areas and would serve as a bridge to fully
autonomous systems capable of strike,
which he expects sometime in the 2020s.
GAO, in its report, said UCLASS current-
ly stands to be ready for early operational
capacity in 2022, two years later than
planned. n
Mabus: delays are holding back UCLASS
While Congress debates, the carrier-based drone program languishes
18 JULY/AUGUST 2015 | DefenseSystems.com
BY DEFENSE SYSTEMS STAFF
The Air Force is looking to develop
low-cost UAS that could operate
in di cult environments and es-
sentially be expendable. e service is
soliciting technology that would allow
for long-range, high-speed unmanned
aircra with strike capability but with
a price tag lower than what it pays for
its current eet. e solicitation says it
wants the UAS for operations "where
forward basing is di cult or prohibited."
e Air Force notes that aircra costs
are rising, driven by a focus on perfor-
mance, reliability and durability. To date,
the military has acquired UAS---such as
the MQ-9 Reaper, which costs about $13
million each---with long lifecycles, just as
it does with manned aircra . e service
wants to look into trading o some of
those attributes in favor of lowering the
cost, so that "loss of aircra could be tol-
erated." e Air Force suggests that low-
ering the bar on its usual requirements
could lead to innovations in design, and
allow for the use of commercial technol-
ogies and manufacturing techniques that
could cut costs.
At the moment, the Air Force said it is
willing to spend about $7.45 million for
a 30 month e ort to "design, develop, as-
semble, and test a technical baseline for a
high speed, long range, low cost, limited
life strike UAS," although the program is
exible. n
Next for the Air Force: Expendable drones?
Navy Secretary
Ray Mabus